Chapter 5 - THE SECRET IN THE DRIVEWAYOutside, the night air was cold.
Graham helped Maren into the car.
He crouched beside her and examined the red marks on her wrists.
“Does your stomach hurt?”
“A little.”
“We're calling the doctor.”
“Graham, I'm fine.”
“I’m not taking that chance.”
His hands were shaking.
Not from anger anymore.
From fear.
Maren touched his wrist.
“Thank you.”
He looked at her.
“For what?”
“For coming.”
Graham closed his eyes.
“I should've gotten there sooner.”
“You didn't know.”
“No.”
He looked toward Corinne's glowing house.
Then Maren asked the question.
“What did she mean?”
Graham didn't answer.
“About your mother making space for you when you were a kid?”
His face changed.
For several seconds, he stared through the windshield.
Finally he whispered:
“We'll talk about it.”
“When?”
“Soon.”
Maren nodded.
But she knew him.
Graham was not avoiding the question because he didn't know the answer.
He was avoiding it because the answer hurt.
As they drove away, Maren watched Corinne's house disappear in the rearview mirror.
She had thought the problem was Helena's dislike of her.
She had been wrong.
She had walked into a wound that had existed long before she arrived.
May you like
And somehow—
she had become the person standing closest to it.
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